Certain refrigerator appliances include an ice maker. An ice maker may also be a stand-alone appliance designed for use in commercial and/or residential kitchens. To produce ice, liquid water is directed to the ice maker and frozen. A variety of ice types can be produced depending upon the particular ice maker used. For example, certain ice makers include a mold body for receiving liquid water. The shape of the ice produced in such ice makers will generally correspond to the shape of the mold body. For example, refrigerator ice makers and other residential ice makers commonly include a mold body which produces crescent-shaped ice.
Many consumers, however, prefer barrel ice, which may be generally cylindrical in shape, over crescent-shaped ice pieces. Past attempts at providing an ice maker which produces barrel-shaped ice have met with difficulty. For example, some ice makers include a mold body with cylindrical mold cavities, where ice is harvested from the mold cavities by pushing the ice up out of the cavities from below, such as with a piston that passes through the bottom of at least one of the mold cavities. Such ice makers include a seal at the location(s) where the piston passes through the bottom of the mold cavity to prevent liquid water escaping the mold body. The movement of the piston may cause such seals to wear out prematurely.
Accordingly, an ice maker with features for producing and reliably harvesting barrel-shaped ice would be useful.